Revision as of 22:25, 4 August 2012

Contents

Overview

This screen is accessed from the back-end Joomla! administrator panel. It is used to add or edit banners which can be displayed on your Joomla! website.

How to Access

Navigate to the Banner Manager. To add a new Banner, click on the New icon in the toolbar. To edit an existing Banner, click on the Banner's Name or check the Banner's checkbox and press the Edit icon in the toolbar.

Description

This is where you add a new Banner or edit an existing one. Note that you will need to create at least one Banner Client and one Banner Category before you can create your first Banner.

Screenshot

Details and Options

Details

Name. The name of the Banner. This is the name that will display in the Name column of the Banner Manager.

Alias. The internal name of the item, also used in the URL when SEF is activated. Normally, you can leave this blank and Joomla! will fill in a default value. The default value is the Title or Name in lower case and with dashes instead of spaces. You may enter the Alias manually. The Alias should consist of lowercase letters and hyphens (-). No blank spaces or underscores are allowed. Note: If the title consists of non-Latin characters, the Alias will default to the current date and time, for example "2009-02-11-17-54-38".

Category. The Category this item belongs to.

Type. The type of banner to display. Options are an image file or custom HTML code.

State: State of the item. Possible values are:

Published: The item is published. This is the only state that will allow regular website users to view this item.

Unpublished: The item is unpublished.

Archived: The item has been archived.

Trashed: The item has been sent to the Trash.

Custom Code (Only displayed for banner type Custom). The HTML code to insert in the place of a banner image file.

Image (Only displayed for banner type Image). Image file to display for the banner. Specify the relative path to the banner image to use or click the Select button to browse and select the image file to use. Use the Media Manager to upload Banner image files to your site.

Width (Only displayed for banner type Image). The fixed width to resize the banner image to. Leave this blank if you want to use the actual width of the banner image file.

Height (Only displayed for banner type Image). The fixed height to resize the banner image to. Leave this blank if you want to use the actual height of the banner image file.

Alternative Text (Only displayed for banner type Image). Text to display in place of the banner image in the event the image cannot be displayed.

Click URL. The URL to navigate to when the User clicks on the Banner.

Description. Description of this category, which can optionally be displayed in the front-end.

Language. Item language.

ID. This is a unique identification number for this item assigned automatically by Joomla!. It is used to identify the item internally, and you cannot change this number. When creating a new item, this field displays 0 until you save the new entry, at which point a new ID is assigned to it.

Publishing Options

Created. The date the banner was created.

Start Publishing. An optional start date to publish the item. Click the calendar icon to modify this date, or type in a date and time.

Finish Publishing. An optional end date for the item. Click the calendar icon to modify this date, or type in a date and time.

Sticky. Whether or not the banner is 'sticky'.

Max. Impressions. The number of Impressions purchased for this Banner. Impressions are the number of times a Banner will be displayed on a page. Check the 'Unlimited' checkbox if an unlimited number of Impressions is allowed.

Total Impressions. The number of times this Banner has been displayed on a web page to a user. No entry is allowed. You can reset this number to 0 by pressing the 'Reset impressions' button.

Total Clicks. The number of times this Banner has been clicked. No entry is allowed. You can reset this number to 0 by pressing the 'Reset clicks' button.

Client. The Client Name for this Banner. Select one from the drop-down list box of existing Clients.

Purchase Type. The purchase type of the banner. This is used to indicate how the banner client purchased the display time for the banner - monthly, yearly, etc...

Track Impressions. Whether or not to track the number of times the banner is displayed to web site visitors.

Track Clicks. Whether or not to track the number of times the banner is clicked by web site visitors.

Metadata Options

Meta Keywords. Optional comma-separated list that will be added to the HTML keywords output.

Use Own Prefix. Whether or not to use the banner's prefix or that of the client. Select No if you want to use the prefix of the banner client.

Meta Keyword Prefix. When matching meta keywords, only search for meta keywords with these optional prefixes. This improves performance.

Toolbar

At the top right you will see the toolbar. Whether you selected to create a new banner or edit an existing one will determine what toolbar buttons will be available.

New banner toolbar:

Edit banner toolbar:

Save. Saves the item and stays in the edit screen.

Save & Close. Saves the item and closes the edit screen.

Save & New. Saves the item and keeps the editing screen open and ready to create another item.

Save as Copy. Saves this item under a new name, keeping the original item unmodified. This button is available only when editing an existing item, not when creating a new one.

Cancel. Returns to the previous screen without saving your work. If you press Cancel while adding a new item, this new item will not be created. If you were modifying an existing item, the modifications will not be saved.

Close. Returns to the previous screen without saving your work. If you press Close while adding a new item, this new item will not be created. If you were modifying an existing item, the modifications will not be saved.

Help. Opens this Help Screen.

Quick Tips

Banners are placed on specific pages by adding Modules of type 'Banners' using the Module Manager.

If you have a series of Banners that you would like to display on one or more pages in random order:

Create the Banners you wish to include, making sure they have the same Client and Category.

Create a Banner Module for this Client and Category, and in the Menu Assignment pick the Menu Selections for the module to display on.

In the Banner Module, set the 'Randomise' value to 'Sticky, Randomise'.

With these settings, the different Banners for that Client and Category will display on the selected pages in random order.